Meeting Minutes List

Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasiGeneral Conference Commission (GCC)
January 27, 2026
9am EST
Voting Members Present: Sterling Allen, Shalom Azabe, Tim Beardsley, Mary Blagojevich, Beth Ann Cook, Elie Diko, César Gazza, Joy Griffin, Tsvetan Iliev, James Kawadza, Chipau Audu Kilyobas, Bridget Kirk, Carol Loeb, Norma Morrison, Nicolas Munongo, Davies Musigo, Mack Parker, Bill Patrick, Charles Puno, Stacy Taylor, Jay Therrell, Molly Williams
Non-Voting Members Present: Laura Ballinger, Ginger Barbee, Rhonda Bourgeois, Dianne Burnett, Mike Grant, Tom Lambrecht, Tesia Mallory, Lamar Oliver, Mike Schafer, Becci Wood
Not Present: Jeff Greenway
Opening Prayer: Molly
Introduction of Tesia Mallory as new Worship Team chair.
Minutes: Approve minutes from January 13 meeting, with one correction, per Tom, change the word “electing” to “nominating”: “Portal for electing nominating Administrative Committees is being built, with the goal of early February to be open.” Change will be made and minutes will be sent to GMC website. Approved 19-0
Assembly of Bishops, Bishop Greenway:
• No report
Connectional Council Report, Mike Schafer:
• Received plan of Organization; Trinity Conference requested an amendment to change the number of nominations for Administrative Committees from each conference delegation from 16 to 20. Change was approved.
Event Project Manager, Becci:
• 550 registrations to date
• Almost all non US delegates have not registered yet.
• Looking to add a 6th hotel - Sky Hotel will be right across the street from the Sandton Convention Center - hoping to book 25 double rooms (2 single beds) and 45 rooms with one queen bed.
• Reserved delegates are not being invited to register at this time.
Chair, Mike G:
• Vice Chair nominations: Sterling nominated Beth Ann, accepted; Chipau nominated Davies, not accepted; Carol nominated James, accepted. Motion by Sterling,
seconded by Bridget to close nominations. Approved 17-0-0; Vote for Beth Ann or James, Beth Ann elected 14 votes to 7.
• Team Leaders next meeting will be on February 5 at 10:00EST
Translation/Interpretation, Bill:
• Recommendation of Kudo for AI interpretation services.
• Wordly proposal: $29,300; Interprefy proposal: $32,256; Kudo proposal: $27, 150; Kudo has 68 languages available, with KiSwahili being added soon; Can manage 10 languages at one time; AI speech and close captioned; Hybrid ready if needed; 20% house of worship discount; 250 hours as part of contract; Kudo has their own platform; user friendly; real time translation and transcription; automatically picked up dialects; no limit on number of users; will connect with livestream
• Finance team approved proposal not to exceed $40,000 to leave room for an onsite (Johannesburg) Kudo technician.
• Legislative committee meetings in June and Episcopacy committee in May will use 12-16 hours of AI interpretation.
• Motion from Interpretation team to use Kudo platform with maximum $40,000 (budget amount was $110,000) for interpretation at General Conference 2026. Approved 16-0-0
Legislation, Tom:
• Motion from Legislative Team to receive recommendation of proposed Allocation of Delegates. Total of 404 delegates. (This was emailed to the GCC. Attached to these minutes.)
• Did not reduce any US conferences from what was projected in the Spring. Some conferences gained delegates from estimate in the Spring.
• Assumed 1/2 time pastors for those Annual Conferences who did not report Full Time Equivalent (FTE) pastor numbers.
• DRC will need to adjust registration because they lost delegates; Tom suggests leaving alternates in place in case there are VISA issues or other potential changes.
• Discussion of what defines an FTE; entering pastors/churches into Atlas • Motion by James to call the question. Seconded by Jay. Approved 14-1-0 • Vote on Allocation for Delegates proposal from Legislative Team: Approved 13-1-1 • Administrative Committee Nominations - deadline extended to 2/8 for delegations to send in nominees.
• The GCC will prepare a slate of nominees and present to the Connectional Council for election.
• Motion by Jay, seconded by Bill, that the Legislative sub team be empowered to create the slate of nominees from the nominee list from each delegation. Approved 15-0-0
Finance, Molly:
• No report
Sponsorships, Mack:
• No report
Housing/Logistics, James:
• No report
Hospitality/Volunteers, Stacy:
• No report
Agenda, Norma:
• No report
Petitions, Lamar:
• No report
Credentialing/Registration, Carol:
• No report
Prayer, Laura:
• No report
International Relations, Elie:
• No report
Missions, Tim:
• No report
Communications, Dianne:
• No report
Next meeting: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 9am EST
Motion to adjourn by Jay, seconded by James. Approved 15-0-0 Meeting closed in prayer by Elie.
Minutes submitted by Stacy Taylorze this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.